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Monday, June 30, 2014

Royal Profile: Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg

Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg was born 30 June 1964 as Alexandra Christina Manley and would later become Princess Alexandra of Denmark in Hong Kong. She is of British, Chinese, Czech and Austrian ancestry, and is the eldest of three daughters of Richard Nigel Manley (1924-2010) and Christa Maria Manley (1933-).

She attended to her education primarily in Hong Kong. It has never been made pubic whether or not the former princess attended a degree, but she studied international business at universities in Austria, Japan and the UK. She worked in the sales and marketing industry in Hong Kong from 1990-1995. When she was engaged to Prince Joachim, she studied Danish as a foreign language.

She met her future 1st husband when he was working for a Danish shipping company and they were both attending a party. They had a quick whirlwind romance, and were engaged by the late fall of 1994, where Prince Joachim surprised her while they were holidaying in the Philippines. Their engagement wasn't made for several months, in May 1995. They married on 18 November 1995 in Denmark {Source}. The marriage was not met without sacrifice for the new royal bride. Having grown up as a British citizen, upon her marriage, she renounced her citizenship, gave up her career in marketing, changed her religious affiliation from Anglican to Evangelical Lutheran. Their marriage produced two sons:

Prince Nikolai (1999)

Prince Felix (2002)

During the summer of 2004, rumors and speculations were beginning that the former princess's marriage was about to end. Sure enough, by the end of summer that year, when their children were fairly young, they announced their intentions to separate and eventually divorce. A Danish Royal divorcing hadn't taken place since 1846. The Folketing (Danish's national Parliament) chose to put her on the civil list for life, independent from a potential future marriage, her yearly allowance began retroactively in October 2004, and was equal to $ 330,000 (equal to 189,0170.70 Danish Krone). Their divorce was finalized in April 2005.

As a Danish royal, she was popular among the Danish people. She was known for her fashion sense and charity work, and was often referred to as the "Diana of the North". She is a native English and German speaker, so she was able to pick up the Danish language quickly. In spite of being raised in Hong Kong, she never learn Manarin Chinese or Canotnese. Both during and after her marriage she was involved with many charitable efforts including The Children's Red Cross, the Danish Society for the Blind, UNICEF, and the single-mother's organization, Mother Help. She also was a UNICEF ambassador whe nshe traveled to Thailand to visit with HIV/AIDS patients.